A network forwarding chip often has to meet stringent operating temperature and power consumption requirements within a network forwarding element (e.g., a switch or a router). Meeting these requirements is often not trivial, as it requires controlling the dynamic power consumption of the network forwarding chip. This is because modern fabrication processes use advanced lithographic processes to produce semiconductor chips with very small feature sizes (e.g., smaller transistor gate lengths, etc.). The smaller feature sizes allow many high-speed components (e.g., transistors) to be defined on the chip. Most of these components consume the majority of their power during their dynamic operations (e.g., when they are changing their states). As a component's contribution to the operating temperature of the chip is related to the component's power consumption, the component's temperature contribution is primarily related to its dynamic operation.
To date, there have not been many good solutions for controlling the operating temperature and power consumption of network forwarding chips. Therefore, there is a need in the art for novel techniques that can control the operating temperature and power consumption of network forwarding chips.